This is a history of Indiana Ceramic Supply (ICS). It
is not meant to inspire you to pursue a career in the ceramics business
either as a supply or as a ceramic shop. The continuing story of ICS and
ceramics in general has been rather discouraging in recent years. Looking
at the business as a whole, I would never recommend that a person get
into ceramics. But if you are interested in ceramics, this history may
help you see some of the difficulties we have experienced along the way.
Not all is bad. Good customers always make you feel good. I just wish
we could make a living doing those things we love and helping others achieve
their artistic potential in ceramics.

ICS was started by Barbara and Dan Gould of Ft. Wayne, Indiana in 1968.
Barbara was an accomplished ceramics designer and the ceramics industry
was very prolific, still heading to its zenith of popularity. There
was a need for a local supplier of ceramic materials because many individual
shops were in existence and needed a central location from which to
buy molds, paints, glazes, and supplies.

Dan, being business minded, got things rolling and their company became
a distributor for many different mold and paint companies. As more ceramic
shops came into existence, business expanded. Dan decided to start a
satellite store in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1977. His son, Scott, would
run the Indianapolis store. Business in Indianapolis was slow starting
because of competition from The Brickyard, which is AMACO's retail outlet.
The Brickyard sent people to various ceramic shops in Indianapolis asking
the owners if The Brickyard were to set up another retail outlet on
the East side (which was where Scott's business was), would they abandon
Scott and stick to The Brickyard. Apparently, this didn't go over well,
and Scott's business increased. Scott then decided to offer his customers
another choice of ceramic slip than Excel which was offered by The Brickyard.
In 1988, he started The Hoosier Slip Company.
As a starting point, Scott used Sugar Creek Slip's formula. (Sugar Creek
Industries, in Linden, Indiana, decided to get out of the slip business.)
It took about a year of trial and error before Scott's own formula was
perfect. He began delivering slip all over Indiana and supplied the
parent store in Ft. Wayne.

Around 1992, the hobby ceramic industry pretty much had reached its
zenith and started leveling out. Whereas in 1968 only about 20% of the
women were in the general workforce, in 1992, about 80% of the women
were employed, leaving less time for ceramics. By 1998, about 90% of
the women were working and the women who made a good living in ceramics
in the 1960's through 80's started retiring or dying. A few of the big
mold companies started folding and Dan and Scott realized that it was
time to sell their business. In November, 1998, Dan and Scott found
two willing buyers for their business - Don and Barb Case in Fort Wayne
and Mark and Debbie Waldo in Indianapolis. Each location was sold separately.

The events leading up to this fateful purchase for Mark and Debbie
will now be unraveled. Mark was working as a systems analyst consultant
and Debbie was working at a factory that makes welding parts. They also
raised rabbits as a hobby.

Mark got the idea of selling ceramic rabbits at the rabbit shows. They
went all over creation looking for ceramic rabbits, and after buying
hundreds, thought, "Why not make them ourselves?" The first
thing they would have to do is to find out how to paint and glaze them.
They took some classes at The Brickyard. Debbie painted a large black
rabbit sleeping and Mark painted a rabbit clock.They won first and second
place in the Central Indiana Ceramics Association show.

Their daughter, Jennifer, was an assistant manager at a Taco Bell and
Debbie thought it would be good to make a chijuajua nodder. They bought
a mold and learned how to pour it. They made about 25 dogs and sold
them all to friends of Jennifer at Taco Bell.

At that time, Grissom Air Force Base near Peru, Indiana was closing
its active component and was auctioning off its ceramics shop. Mark
and Debbie went to the auction and bought two kilns and 8 skids of molds,
thinking to also go into the greenware business.

Debbie was driving through Beech Grove, Indiana and came across a ceramic
shop that was moving down the street. The lady that ran the shop was
Carol Akers. Carol asked Debbie if she needed some shelves, and Debbie
enthusiastically said, "Yes!". There went Mark and Debbie's
garage! Mark and Debbie started taking lessons at Carol's Ceramics and
found out that Indiana Ceramic Supply was going out of business. Mark
approached Scott and asked how much he would sell the slip business
for. The amount was very reasonable and it made sense to purchase it
because Mark and Debbie could not only make their own slip, saving about
50%, but could also sell the excess slip to others because Scott had
a loyal following. Mark then asked how much the entire business would
cost, and it was also very reasonable. So they struck up a deal. The
original concept of selling ceramic rabbits at rabbit shows quickly
faded. They now had a big business on their hands.

Mark and Debbie were now the proud new owners of Indiana Ceramic Supply
in Indianapolis. Within a week of Mark and Debbie buying the Indianapolis
ICS, Don and Barb Case bought the Fort Wayne ICS. Mark asked Carol Akers
if she would like to close up her Beech Grove ceramic store and move
it into ICS. She could then give classes and not worry about overhead.
It was a good synergistic relationship. ICS could facilitate classes
and have an expert on board to answer any tough questions about ceramics.
So Carol and her daughter, Janice, pulled up stakes and moved their
shop into ICS in Indianapolis. Shortly after that, a pottery teacher
named Jeremy South needed a place to teach pottery. Mark and Debbie
welcomed him into ICS to teach his classes. After teaching many students,
Jeremy left to teach young people pottery in schools.

Because ceramics in general continued to lose interest in the 90's
into the 2000's, both the Fort Wayne and Indianapolis businesses did
not fare well ever since their aquisitions and both were in jeopardy
of going bankrupt. The Indianapolis store did more business than Fort
Wayne and was more able to hold on. Then, out of nowhere, Laguna Clay
Co offered the Indianapolis store a distributorship for all of Indiana
which also covered Illinois and Kentucky. ICS would then be able to
reach Potters! The pottery business, as a whole, has been steady. The
additional line of clay products has provided some extra income, though
meager. One of the biggest problems making money with clay from the
Laguna Clay Company was that they would compete against their own distributors,
selling to whomever called them. They would even sell directly to the
customers of their distributors! What could have been a very lucrative
business turned out to be only passé. Another problem with clay
sales was that when potters came in to buy clay, they would generally
buy an average of only two boxes. Whereas, the normal purchase from
AMACO (our competitor) or from the Laguna warehouse was 20-40 boxes.
We tried to break into the school business but found that most of them
would remain loyal to AMACO.

In December, 2001, the Fort Wayne store closed its doors forever. That's
what happens when your customers do not adequately support you. Don
said that his customers started buying their supplies from a company
in Michigan that would give everyone 40% off on everything and make
free deliveries to boot. Anyone who is in business knows that there
is no way you can stay in business by marking up your items only 10%
and then driving 100 - 200 miles to make free deliveries. The person
who was responsible for this had a heart attack and had to give up his
business. Now with both places gone, the Fort Wayne customers were without
a local ceramics supplier. As a result, very few ceramic shops are now
left in that area. The bold ones would purchase their supplies from
Indianapolis even though it's a long drive and delivery costs are high.

Also in December, 2001 the Indianapolis store moved its location from
4355 Sellers St. on the Northeast side of Indianapolis to 1034 E. New
York St., which is downtown Indianapolis. It went from a 11,000 sq.
ft building to a 21,000 sq. ft, more centrally located facility. The
move brought the business into the central arts district of Indianapolis
and picked up several new accounts, including Heron School of Art. In
2004, The Brickyard moved its location from Speedway to the far Northwest
side of Indianapolis, which made it hard for many customers to get to.
After the move, they decided not to carry greenware or bisque on their
shelves. These events would seem to have opened the door for ICS to
grab many Brickyard customers who buy greenware or bisque regularly.
The strange thing though, is that business, steadily decreased in spite
of what would seem to have been a windfall. The problem is that every
month more ceramic shops go out of business. Instead of the customers
who frequented those shops coming to ICS to continue, they simply lost
interest in ceramics.

The ceramic industry, as a whole, is continuing to decline throughout
the United States. In 2006, ICS sales were off by more than 50% from
when they first started. More ceramic supplies, shops and mold companies
have been going out of business and not being replaced. The older people
that were the backbone of the ceramics hobby have gotten out of ceramics
or have died. In 2006, even the Central Indiana Ceramic Association
disbanded due to a lack of interest. Indiana Ceramic Supply tried to
continue in business as long as it could even though its officers have
never received any money for working 6 days a week. You ask then, "How
did they survive?" The answer is: selling their farm, mortgaging
their house and maxing out their credit cards. It probably would have
been better to go out of business years ago than to put themselves at
such great financial risk.

Such a financial state as this could not be maintained for long. ICS
finally threw in the towel in October, 2006 and closed its retail shop
to walk-in customers. As this web site attests, ICS still does business
on the internet selling kilns, molds, books, and a few other things.
At least now we don't have to worry about overhead.

Looking back to the January 2000 edition of Popular Ceramics, Mark
wrote an article talking about his and Debbie's "Jackrabbit Start"
in the ceramics business, talking about how ceramic rabbits influenced
their getting into the business. This article was written before they
decided to buy ICS, at a time when they were only going to make greenware.
In the article, Mark stated that their goal was to have the largest
greenware selection available anywhere. Little did he know just how
much the little ceramic rabbits would reproduce and multiply. As of
October 2006, ICS had probably the largest selection of greenware and
bisque in the U.S., pouring from over 60,000 molds. ICS also had one
of the largest selection of clays, glazes, and paints in the midwest.
And remember - ICS had no employees - just Mark and Debbie! - and several
volunteers who would jump in to help in times of great need.

At this time, Debbie and I would especially like to thank the following
individuals for volunteering their time helping us without asking for
any compensation:

Carol and Janice Akers

Mary Jo and Tom Lowe

Madelyn and Russ Thomas

Tracy and Billy Stewart

Nancy and Dovey Frye

Jane Quinn

Elizabeth Coy

Loretta Brown

Anne Kuhn

Pat Ullery

Pat and Samantha Gallagher

(If anyone was left out, our sincerest apologies - our minds are not steel
traps. Just remind us and we'll gladly add your name to the list.)

As the saying goes, even though we don't know what the future holds,
we know Who holds the future. Depending on God to provide all of our
needs according to His riches in glory, we will not despair but will
follow wherever He leads us.

If you are looking for ceramic casting slip, Tomorrow's Heirlooms in
West Lafayette, Indiana bought most of our store, including the Hoosier
Slip Company and will be continuing to make Hoosier Slip according to
the same formula. If you live in the Indiana or Eastern Illinois area,
they may make deliveries to your area. Contact them at 765-463-2362 or
765-497-0075 or 765-412-4867.

Our current business, run from our living room on the internet, is growing.
We now offer more molds from more companies than we ever did. We have
the only site in the world that lists so many molds from so many companies
whereby you can search for molds using key words. We offer you the ability
to order right on line without the necessity of calling or emailing us.
We do not stock and ship any products except literature. All other products
are drop-shipped to you from the manufacturer. The advantages of ordering
from us is one-stop shopping for molds made by many manufacturers, no-risk
policy where you know we are good stewards of your funds, guaranteed replacement
of molds, kilns, and kiln furniture broken on delivery at no extra cost,
our unique mold search capability that spans all of the mold companies
to find an item you are looking for, and discounts of 20-25% on all items.

If you are interested in ceramics, I welcome you to our on-line store.
And I wish you all the best of luck in your ceramic endeavors.